workforce planningViewing Art
Immitates Life

By Mark Lerner

I just returned from my annual trip to
the RSNA. Whenever I go, I make it a
priority to go to the Art Institute of
Chicago (don’t tell my boss). I rank this
institution second only to New York’s
Metropolitan as the best museum in this
country. A highlight of each visit is to
see Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks. What
I especially enjoy doing is sitting on a
bench watching peoples’ reaction to this
work. This year was no different from
others. It was difficult to obtain a clear
sight of the painting as individual after
individual stopped to admire the realist
scene (circa 1942) of three lonely people
perched on stools in a diner in the middle of the night. Most of the time, the act
of viewing is combined with animated
conversation with others about the feelings they are experiencing.

My self-directed tour of the museumserves to reinforce my view that there isgreatness in the world. But I could havecome to the same impression from myexperience at the 2011 RSNA conference.I would label this year as the one of thedirect digital plate. It seems that everymanufacturer produces one and they area remarkable technological invention. Atabout the thickness of my thumbnail,they record x-ray images with muchhigher resolution and much lower radia-tion exposure than computed radiologycassettes. Many transmit the informationwirelessly. They weigh no more than onevolume of “Merrill’s Atlas of Radiograph-ic Positioning and Procedures.”It is astonishing the progress that hasbeen made regarding performing porta-ble x-ray examinations. One vendor pro-vides three options for the way thesestudies are completed. One unit uses abuilt-in computed radiology reader.Another converts GE’s AMX4+ to directdigital imaging. The last one uses theirown direct digital system with wirelesscassettes, which are soon to be available intwo different sizes. The innovationsregarding the direct digital plate do notstop here. One manufacturer has even fig-ured out how to record fluoroscopy imag-es with their product.

Mark Lerner is the director of diagnostic imaging at
the George Washington University Hospital. He can
be reached at Mark.Lerner@gwu-hospital.com.